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The History of New Bedford - Bristol County, Massachusetts. ~Presentation Copy~
Daniel Ricketson
New Bedford, 1858
Daniel Ricketson was a Massachusetts contemporary and friend of Henry Thoreau. He sought refuge from the exacerbations of modern life in his own shanty dwelling (albeit not far from a nice main house) before Thoreau did. A Quaker, anti-slavery advocate, writer, and philanthropist, Ricketson sought out famous men of letters particularly within the Transcendental circles of Concord. More notable people rose to greater prominence, like Thoreau and Emerson, but Ricketson hitched his wagon to them.
Original publisher’s cloth with minor spots of rubbing on the covers (one moderate sized spot on rear cover), small damp stain on bottom corner of text through first third, occasional pages with minor foxing/browning, else a really nice Near Fine copy with bright gilt. Affectionately presented to his cousins - signed and dated a year after publication. The only other signed copy I’ve seen is housed in New Bedford’s Whaling Museum. The book is the first published history of the Old Dartmouth region on the south coast of Massachusetts – an area renowned for its vital whaling industry.
An important book with a scarce presentation, and an opportunity to access a bit of Thoreau magic at a fraction of the standard going rate.
“There are three major factors that raise The History of New Bedford from mere reminiscences and chronicles to a compendium of the earliest community of separatists and pilgrims who found their peace neither in Plymouth Colony nor Massachusetts Bay Colony, which adjoined Plymouth Colony early on.
The first was Ricketson’s deep affection of homeland. He was born in New Bedford in 1813, and died there in 1898, not far from his childhood home. The earliest of his colonial line was William Ricketson, (d. 1691), who, together with his wife were proprietors of the Colony. Later his Grandfather, Captain Daniel Ricketson (1744-1824), married into the prospering Russell family and continued the line with Joseph (1771-1841), who sired Daniel in 1813. Deep roots bred the deep affections for the people he memorialized. “The fondness . . . for the spot of our nativity . . . (neither time nor) distance can eradicate . . .” (p v). Further, he wrote, “It behooves every American to be acquainted with the history of the place which gave him birth.” (p. vi)
The second motivating force behind his history seems to have been unquoted words from Shakespeare’s drama, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; . . .” (Julius Caesar, III, 2)
And last, Christ’s admonishment, after multiplying the loaves and fishes, to “Gather all the fragments, lest any be lost.” (p. iv and p. 137)
As a serious historical record, Ricketson’s History often falls short of the mark. The deeds and characters of seemingly insignificant figures are often brought forward and explored in disproportionately greater depth than the deeds and characters of many who played more luminous roles in the history of Old Dartmouth Colony. It was not by chance that this occurred.
The author was a deeply religious, Old Light Quaker, all of whose motivations and writings celebrated their virtues and goodness. A brief glance behind the scanty mention of certain more-notable figures shows them to have been slaveholders, apostates, or smugglers. Their places have been given to people who might have otherwise been lost to time. These were the people who gave him being, and among whom he lived. Too humble to glorify themselves, their names appeared neither on public buildings, nor street signs, nor often even gravestones. These were the earliest of the Old Light Quakers, and it is this now-extinct race that would most easily have passed into history as quietly as it once lived and thrived, if not for its humble and pious spokesman.
For it was this community that collectively, more than individually, held the virtues and values that shaped and formed the character of Old Dartmouth for two centuries. For two centuries, it was a place unlike any other place in America because of the immense influence of its collective believers. A very small corner in a very small state, New Bedford still bears traces of its past. They live in the quiet brotherhood of scholars, preservationists, and volunteers who toil in her museums, libraries, and historical societies. They are recognized wherever people value goodness.
And this is the importance, the relevance, and the value of Daniel Ricketson, the man and his book.” (Fitzgerald)
While Ricketson possessed many admirable qualities, contemporary accounts suggest other traits – “hypochondria and emotional instability” for starters - that would seemingly be at odds with the “stoical and intellectual” Thoreau. Don Mortland deconstructs their odd couple friendship in his 1985 work, Thoreau’s Friend Ricketson: What Manner of Man?
An excerpt recounting their first meeting:
“On a cold Christmas Day in 1854 Daniel Ricketson, independently wealthy New Bedford Quaker, was shoveling snow when he observed approaching his house a man who he first took to be a pedlar. The man was Henry Thoreau. Ricketson has expected him earlier, and he has expected a somewhat different appearing man. The man he had invited, the who wrote Walden, which Ricketson has purchased the day after publication, he had imagined as a hardier, more muscular and robust man, not the slightly stooped, short, even somewhat homely person who said, “You don’t know me.” Ricketson at first didn’t know him, but in the seven and one half years which Thoreau had yet to live the two men would get to know each other quite well. In fact, Ricketson would become, along with H.G.O. Blake, one of Thoreau’s chief correspondents. Thoreau wrote twenty-seven to Ricketson and the latter wrote Thoreau forty four times. Thoreau would visit Ricketson six times in New Bedford (a 70 miles distance from Concord), while the latter would pay eight calls on Thoreau in Concord.” (Mortland)
On a personal aside, Ricketson also made some poignant sketches of Thoreau during Henry’s visits to him - which are now housed in museums. They are aching first hand accounts of the American icon on excursion, and convey the level of affection Ricketson held for his friend.
[signed, history]